Twitter Will Help Hush Noise in British Courts

Reporting from British courts is tightly controlled, with television coverage and photography prohibited and sound recording allowed only in exceptional circumstances. However an unexpected announcement came by when the top judge announced that the famous site Twitter can be used in courtrooms in England and Wales. This is said to be an attempt to reduce any improper interferences with the court’s sound recording equipment and other distractions, “The use of an unobtrusive, hand-held, virtually silent piece of modern equipment for the purposes of simultaneous reporting of proceedings to the outside world as they unfold in court is generally unlikely to interfere with the proper administration of justice,” said Igor Judge, the most senior judge in England and Wales.

The use of live text-based communications in open court is not statutorily prohibited in the law of England and Wales. It was stated by the Judge that after careful examination as to whether such use would pose any danger to the court proceedings the use of twitter would be limited to journalists. The interim ruling was the result of the requests of the journalists, covering the extradition coverings of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, to tweet new proceedings.